Mercy of the Hawk's Song
by An Apple Bleeds At Twilight
Summary: Kiesha'Ra series. Gregory Cobriana's POV on when Danica Shardae comforted him and let him die peacefully... CHAP 2 is UP!
1. Chapter 1

**Mercy of the Hawk's Song**

_This war. This damned war between the serpiente and the avians has raged for thousands of years, so many generations of our kind and theirs have died. What have they died for is the question that haunts me now as today I lead another troop to their certain end. I have lost two brothers, Carson and Anjay, both killed in this war along with my father. A dear sister, Sisal, caught in an avian's damn trick and killed along with the babe, our innocent niece, she had been carrying._

_Now only Zane, Irene and I remain to rule after our mother resigns. So few of us are left. Zane wishes to someday, somehow stop this war that storms around us. All we have known is war, not peace, not joy. Only death, blood and tears have been our life._

_What have we been fighting for? Why have so many fell? All I have seen is bodies left to the dirt, brothers lost, fathers dead, mothers, sisters and wives crying for those they lost. So many deaths and not one attempt to bestow peace in this broken land, between the broken societies. The blood runs so deep in the crevices of the land I am beginning to believe the land is feeding off the blood of the sons and daughters of the hawk Alasdair and the supposed mother of our bloodlines, the cobra Kiesha._

_I glance at the signet of the Cobriana on my left hand and sigh: I am leading these troops into battle for my fallen brothers, my sister and my little niece._

_But am I doing the right thing?_

**Gregory Cobriana**

**Arami of the Serpiente**

**A/N: Chapter 2 is coming soon, this was only the prologue**

**- Notebook**


	2. Chapter 2: Mercy of the Hawk's Song

**Chapter 2**

I fought the avians surrounding my guard, blood staining my blade and my face as each fell with a muffled gasps to the ground, already adding to the casualties of the day. This had been my life: Death and blood. I was not alien to battle nor loss for I had already lost a sister and two brothers, a father and a niece, all butchered in this war to the joy of the avian society. I supposed this was their one goal besides winning the war and wiping the serpiente from the earth: To kill any trace of the Corbriana blood.

My guards were locked in bloody battle, struggling to prove their people were stronger. I felt detached from it all, as if I was a ghost among the living and the fallen. I watched as more fell and defended as more attacked. Avian or serpiente, I didn't care anymore.

Scanning the battlefield, and sensing a young avian's prideful stance behind me, I gutted him before his blade had a chance to scratch my shoulder blade. A snake can sense emotion and I had, using it so that I, the oldest of the last two surviving princes, would not be cut down and die among the soulless people with wings. Turning, I recognized the golden hair of the Shardae and watched, with possibly a sickened heart, as the heir to my enemies' throne thrust a blade in my stomach and dragged it across my stomach as a final tribute to his own death: He was bringing another heir to another throne to the skies with him.

But, before the boy had a chance to finish the job, his skin paled and he fell limp. This Shardae's death had come, and I was glad.

"_They say the avians are soulless, they can 'hide' from us so be careful Gregory, use your head out there."_ Zane had said that to me in my room, before I left.

I limped from the battle, biting my lip from the pain. Finally I fell to my back with a cry, finding myself in the scant shelter of trees, the sun warming my face, and the cries from the battle echoing in my ears.

This was it, I thought, all this life I lived only to die like this.

I murmured pleas for death, for my people, for hopeless help and pleas to the supposed mother of the Cobriana line: cunning Kiesha. I heard movement and recognized the new heir to the avian throne, hastily closing my eyes as I did, hoping she'd believe me dead. I heard a rustling and guessed her guard was near, the guard I had been led to kill.

I heard the slight crackling of leaves as if someone had bent to kill me; opening my eyes I swallowed a gasp. Eyes, golden as the sunrise, met mine, emotionless and yet fighting to shed a tear. I shook with pain as the gaping wound bled, and with a fear of death. I saw the heir recoil at my gaze but it was then she saw the stomach wound. I was surprised when she choked out a sob, so the avian people did have feelings only hid them to keep their dignity. The heir whispered with her guard too quietly for me to hear and the guard knelt beside her and they exchanged a glance, before those molten gold eyes turned back to me.

In a voice that could capture any man's heart she said, "I'm here, don't fret." Smoothing my blood-soaked hair as she did. At this avian's casual touch, so like a serpiente, my eyes filled with tears. My voice, though weak, managed to reply: "Thank you." Then I looked straight up at her, pleading to her and whispered: "End it. Please."

I saw the heir wince and felt the drop of a tear upon my hand. The kneeling guard asked her by some sort of nickname of 'Dani' and the heir shook her head, taking my hand. I gripped it tightly as if she were some anchor that would take me from this pain, from death. I saw the glint of a knife as she drew it from her waist, and the reach of the guard as he caught her wrist to stop her, shaking his head.

The guard and princess conversed in whispers I could not hear and as the fair woman turned to me, her eyes bright with tears that had not been shed, she sang to me. Songs about freedom, children able to play without worry and pain. I sighed as my mind drifted to a simpler time, to a childhood I once held claim, to a more peaceful time, to before Anjay, Carson and Sisal were killed.

_**I wish to you sunshine, my dear one, my dear one. **_

_**And treetops for you to soar past.**_

_**I wish you innocence my child, my child. I pray you don't grow up too fast.**_

_**Never know pain, my dear one, my dear one. Nor hunger nor fear nor sorrow.**_

_**Never know war, my child, my child.**_

_**Remember your hope for tomorrow. **_

As my grip on the heir's hand loosened, my eyes slowly closing, I thought:

"_This is the mercy I received. The mercy of the hawk's song…"_

And there my breath froze.


End file.
